1. Field of the Invention
Alcohol-free and alcohol-reduced beverages have lately become of increased technological and economic interest; Amongst them alcohol-free and low alcohol beers have a special place because the consumer expects them to be completely comparable in taste with regular beer, except for the reduced or almost completely missing alcohol content. The interest of consumers in such alcohol-free or low alcohol beer is mainly based on the increased concern with the high caloric content of beer, the increasingly restrictive traffic laws regarding blood alcohol content, as well as the prohibition of alcohol consumption in factories and shops caused by labor protection laws.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The production of alcohol-free or low alcohol beer in accordance with a number of methods has long been known in the brewing business. However, the main problem in the production of such beer to-date has been the achievement of as close as possible a taste for alcohol-free or low alcohol beer which is equivalent to that of regular beer. This could not be achieved by any of the methods so far published.
Refreshing drinks, such as alcohol-free refreshing drinks made from beer wort by lactic fermentation (see German patents 151 123 and 22 12 263) or the one made from brewer's grain according to German patent 8 90 634 cannot be considered complete beer substitutes since their flavor is totally different from that of beer.
The same holds for the methods of German patents 2 42 144 and 6 24 614, wherein nectar yeast or yeast cultivated from fruits are used and fermented.
Next to the question of alcohol content of the beer the question of flavor plays a deciding role. The above mentioned methods aim to maintain the ratio between fermentable and non-fermentable extract in the finished beer as low as possible in order to deprive the finished beer of the unwanted beer wort-like flavor and disagreeable sweetness. Especially in the methods in which fermentation is stopped this goal has not yet been achieved to the fullest satisfaction, which can also be seen from the efforts to remove alcohol from regular beer afterwards.